The UK home secretary, Suella Braverman, was forced to leave, further destabilizing Liz Truss’s premiership and infuriating the Tory right.
The announcement that Braverman would be leaving and being replaced by Grant Shapps, the former transport secretary who actively backed Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership contest, was first made by The Guardian.
Leading right-winger Braverman was fired by the prime minister for gravely violating ministry standards by sending an official document to a colleague MP from her personal email.
The Office for Budget Responsibility’s market-sensitive growth predictions may be significantly impacted by the draft written statement on migration because it dealt with immigration laws.
As more Tory MPs, including her net zero tsar, threatened to defect in a fracking vote, she again reversed course on the pensions triple lock, and she took a beating from Keir Starmer at prime minister’s questions, Braverman’s resignation is a major blow to Truss’s authority.
Shapps’s appointment raised eyebrows in Westminster as he was believed to have been involved in attempts to get rid of the prime minister. It comes two days after he told Matt Forde’s podcast that he thought Truss was unlikely to survive. “She needs to thread the eye of a needle with the lights off, it’s that difficult,” he said.
Braverman, in a brutal resignation letter that contrasted her actions with those of Truss, wrote: “Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics. I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign.
“It is obvious to everyone that we are going through a tumultuous time. I have concerns about the direction of this government. Not only have we broken key pledges that were promised to our voters, but I have had serious concerns about this government’s commitment to honouring manifesto commitments.”
In her perfunctory reply, Truss told her former home secretary: “I accept your resignation and respect the decision you have made.”
Truss had cleared her calendar and canceled a visit because of the impact from Kwasi Kwarteng’s dismissal as chancellor and Jeremy Hunt’s subsequent revision of her economic strategy, which dealt a severe damage to her authority. According to insiders, she chatted with Braverman in her Commons office.
Hunt, who has taken charge of the government’s economic response following Truss’ dismal mini-budget, according to Downing Street sources, is now “pulling the strings” and ordered the move.
Some of Braverman’s supporters raised an eyebrow in response to the security violation. The Northern Ireland minister and co-leader of her leadership candidacy, Steve Baker, claimed that the use of a personal email had merely “technically” broken the rules and that communicating with other MPs about policy was “absolutely usual.”
It seemed “quite small,” according to a Tory MP, and most cabinet ministers had engaged in a similar offense. Another person acknowledged: “This wouldn’t be a resignation thing if they wanted to keep her and she wanted to stay.”
Less than a week after removing Kwarteng as chancellor, Truss replaced Braverman with Shapps, another indication that he is attempting to win over more members of the Conservative party by displacing considered ideologues with more capable ministers.
During a discussion on environmental protests on Tuesday, Braverman accused the “Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati” and opposition parties of being part of a “coalition of chaos” that supported organizations like Just Stop Oil.
In addition, Braverman has attempted to reduce the amount of international student visas, which are a significant source of revenue for UK colleges. However, No. 10 quickly shot down her proposal to designate cannabis as a class A narcotic.
Braverman served as home secretary for about 43 days, making him the least long-lasting since the Duke of Wellington, who held the position in November and December 1834 for just one month. Donald Somervell, who held the position for two months in 1945 as a member of Winston Churchill’s caretaker cabinet for the end of the war, was her sole contemporary opponent for briefness in the position.
In a point of order in the Commons, Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said: “This Tory government is falling apart at the seams. To appoint and then sack both your home secretary and chancellor within six weeks is utter chaos. This is no way to run a government.
“Suella Braverman has admitted breaching security procedures, which raises serious questions. There are also reports of major disputes about policy and we have had weeks of disagreements. We need an urgent statement from the prime minister. Home affairs, security and public safety are too important for this kind of chaos.
“The problems go beyond one home secretary. If the Conservatives can’t even manage the basics, they need to get out of the way and hand over to people who can.”
